Strolling down the back streets of Bangkok’s Chinatown we saw monks were decorating temple compound trees with fairy lights, in preparation for an important service to mark New Year’s Eve. There was a small group of schoolboys assisting the monks, so I went over to chat with them. After chatting for a while, they asked me to take their photograph; I took lots of photos … but this is the pose that they loved the most. A gun and a double middle finger!

Turning the corner, we were presented with a coffin entering a furnace and being engulfed in flames. Just at that moment a Thai monk was passing by on his bicycle, he stopped when he saw us watching the funeral. “We burn bodies!” he said with a chuckle, and rode off.
Further into the compound we noticed a low wall surrounding a small pit with a water pool. Looking over the wall we saw a HUGE crocodile.

Having a gun aimed at you, being given a double “middle finger” by a school kid, meeting a monk laughing about burning bodies. And coming across a giant pet crocodile…………….. Is that unusual?
NOPE……….. It’s just a regular afternoon stroll in the back streets of Bangkok.